February 24, 2010

I have been wanting to make a terrarium for ages now and I finally remembered to write down a list of supplies andbring the list with me on my errand run. An important detail. Turns out to make a terrarium is incredibly simple (key word make. Time will tell if it lives). Now that I have done it I'm not sure what took me so long. And I am fighting the urge to turn every covered glass container in the house into a little mossy diorama. I already have plans for the little Matchbox VW microbus I have although I went with an Easter theme for this one.

So I followed the beginner instructions on the Terrarium Man website but there is an easy tutorial here too. The only difference is Craftzine adds a layer of activated charcoal while Terrarium Man adds a layer Spanish moss. And they had Spanish moss at the dollar store so I went with Terrarium Man. I also just used sheet moss on top but you can add all kinds of plants and ground cover. I am going out in search of a larger container so I can try one of those. I need to plant something tall for my hippies to hang their clothes up to dry on...

February 11, 2010

What? Are you going to try to tell me you don't make roach dioramas when you are bored? Because I'm not buying it...

So it was just Alana's 40th birthday. You might remember Alana, my sister...we, ahem,share this blog. She last posted back in 2008. That sweet little baby is 2 now... Anyway, although you wouldn't know it here, Alana is pretty big into the blogging world (Letter B and Momku) so for her birthday Matthew, her husband, started a secret birthday blog where her family and friends could all post videos, photos, letters, haikus and what not. So, because Alana hates roaches and I am her little sister, my idea was to make a video of a roach birthday party with a roach jumping out of a cake. Actually, my original ideas was to use Peeps Bunnies but then I found my pack of rubber roaches in my sock drawer (what?) and had this minor stroke of genius...I have since made a full recovery, thanks for asking. See the cute little puppy? I'm not all bad.

January 19, 2010

I'm going to take a quick break from the Christmas gifts to bring you some valentines! Wait, what? But it's still January...right? Yes, it is. It is still January. And I have valentines. You are probably sitting there scratching your head thinking that this is not normal (and you are right!) But I was sitting at my computer on Wednesday desperately trying to come up with an alternative to paying holiday bills and I spied the rubber stamp carving kit I bought several months ago. Perfect. I had already drawn a picture of Perry on one of the blocks (back when I was all excited to try carving my own stamps) so I pulled out the carving tool and got to work.

Now, if you have ever carved lino blocks then you have the basic idea of how one carves rubber stamps. But the rubber is much, much, much easier to carve (much easier). It's like carving butter. The only drawback to the lovely buttery softness is that you sacrifice detail. Well, maybe you won't, but I did. It is very easy to accidentally chunk out a piece (or pieces) of your drawing and very hard to get thin lines and small bits. Still, it's a fun project with semi-instant gratification (and way better than paying bills...no matter how many eyes you accidentally chunk out).

Anyway, after I had Perry all carved out I thought he would make the perfect motif for some um, unique valentines. I mean, think about it. What says love better than a waving cockroach? Honestly, can you think of anything? It's like love defined... So, if you happen to be the kind of person that can get away with valentines like these, they'll be in the Etsy shop.

January 11, 2010

I know how it looks but I promise you that this Christmas was not all about Willa. I am reasonably sure there were some other people around here that day...but don't ask me to name names or produce photos (I have a bunch more of Willa though if anyone is interested!)

Anyway. Moving on. I think the most fun presents I made this Christmas were the hula hoops. And the most fun hula hoop was the tiny-sparkling-glittery-pink-and-black hula hoop that I made for Willa. I have to say her reaction to the little hoop totally made up for her reaction to the pony jacket...

Willa would stand in the middle of her hoop and put her arms up and
say "Hoop? Hooah hoop? Kahwaa? Hoop?" Then she'd stand there
laughing and smiling while I spun it around her over and over and over
(and over and over...) As soon as it hit the floor she'd say,
"again." And I'd say, "again, pleeeeease?" And she'd say, "again,
pees." And on and on it went. Until one of us got tired of it.

Yeah, ok, until I got tired of it.

While (in another spectacular rookie move) I failed to take photos of the all of the Christmas hoops alone under the tree, I did manage to get a few shots with the hoops in the background. This shot has some kid in it but you can see a few of the hoops back there shimmering in the tree lights...aren't they pretty? Oh, I'm kidding. This adorable elf is my nephew, Lowell, hamming it up for the camera. All I can say without getting myself in trouble is that he comes by his hamming honestly. But holy cow, could he be any cuter?

January 04, 2010

I really dropped the craft blog ball this year, eh? But no more. This year will be different. I'm back in the game. And I am starting it all off with a few of the Christmas presents I made this year.

This one, from the Sweet Wee Jacket pattern in Amy Karol's Bend The Rules Sewing, was my favorite for many reasons (So cute! So easy! So girly!) I made it for my two-year-old niece, Willa. I had been planning to make it for her for um, about 2 years now but I think the timing worked out well. She is the perfect size for the pattern as-is. Unfortunately, Willa has developed a mind of her own (in fact, they call her "Iron Willa") and she politely refused to try it on. Actually, what I think she said was, "NOOOOOOOOO! NOOOOOOOOOOO! I DON YIKE IT!"

A few days and several Jedi mind tricks later, I was able to get it on her but...I didn't get any photos...(I know, you probably feel like you don't even know me anymore). I have put in a request for a few photos from Alana but in the meantime, or in case Willa won't wear the jacket again ever, (or in case I keep forgetting to send Alana her camera battery that she left here) trust me when I tell you that it was the very definition of Cute.

December 08, 2009

Ok, so if you missed The Big Crafty Holiday Fair in Asheville this Sunday, y'all totally missed out! And I'm not just saying that because I was there. It was super cool. Awesome vendors, amazing stuff, Santa Claus, cupcakes...free beer. I mean, c'mon. It doesn't get better than cupcakes and free beer. Plus it was in Asheville which is such a cool little town. And it even snowed! So, plan on it for next year. Even if you have to drive a little.

I want to say thank you to everyone who stopped by the booth, thank you to all of my customers and thank you to all of the sponsors & planners who made it all happen. I also must thank my own personal sponsor, my fabulous momma (that's her hiding back there), for coming with me, for feeding me (SO well!) and for putting us up in the nicest B & B in Asheville, the Hill House (without her it would have been sofa city for me...) Not to mention for schlepping boxes, sitting for hours and helping me and all of the customers all day long...thank you, Mom! Oh, and I need to thank Terry and Bill, the wonderful innkeepers at Hill House, for such phenomenal breakfasts (omg, crème brûlée french toast...*drools*), cozy accommodations and delightful company (oh, and the bottomless cookie jar (!) and divinely evil treats...)

I will be listing the items I still have in the shop today so for those of you who couldn't make it to Asheville, you can still shop! Yay! And maybe if you are lucky you even have snow where you are.

December 04, 2009

Ok, so nothing like a last minute invitation. But, good news! I am going to be a vendor in the super awesome Big Crafty Holiday Show in Asheville, NC Sunday December 6th from 12-6. Which, yeah, is this Sunday...so if you are in the area I hope you will stop by and say hello. Not just to me-there are a ton of amazing vendors participating. And maybe even snow! Outside, of course, but still very festive. Perfect weather to get you in the mood for a little holiday shopping. Hope to see you all there!

**EDIT: Whoops! Were you wondering what the faces are for? They are for the Warm Fuzzies. They'll be waiting for you at the show!**

October 26, 2009

I stumbled upon this project while I was perusing the blogs from my giveaway comments (thanks, Lisa!) and I thought it was such a cute idea. And since I um, have nothing but free time I decided to join in the fun. This is a picture of her progress so far. I know she'd love to have more squares if any of you out there are interested (it only took me about an hour to finish mine). And it will be super cool to see the finished product (which will be a quilt, I think). I love the internets.

October 23, 2009

...but it's raining babies now! Ok, maybe not raining babies. Just isolated baby showers (bu-dum-bump! Thank you, thank you, I'll be here all week). Sorry. Moving on. So, there is one little baby boy baby on the way, expected by my dear friend, Jennifer & her hubby, and I got to co-host the shower here at my house. It has been about 7 years since I last hosted a baby shower (that sweet little baby is in second grade now) so I was very excited to hang up the baby clothesline again (yes, I still have the 7 year old clothespins). And luckily, one of my co-hosts, Azure, went a little overboard with her buying so we had TONS of adorable clothes and stuff to hang. We pretty much decided to forgo a formal theme and just decorate with clothes, food and sweets. We did have a few flowers and balloons but the cupcakes stole the show (yum!)

I have also been wanting to make a reusable felt banner for years now to use for birthday parties and such so I decided this was a great excuse to finally get it done (plus, I was really trying to keep paper and plastic waste to a minimum). But then I started thinking that I should make the banner as a room decoration/gift for the baby instead of keeping it for myself (how unlike me!) And since the Daddy-to-be is a huge (rabid) Cubs fan I decided to go with that. (My own children are rabid Cubs un-fans so I got a lot of grief for
hanging this up...Cubs?! Are you kidding? Mom! Take that down! I'm
calling Papa & Sue right NOW!) The baby's name will be Maston, in case you couldn't figure that out from the photo...(in which case you might want to put the malt liquor down).

The last gift I made for baby Maston was a little embroidered onesie (done mostly in the stem stitch for those who care to know). I altered the traditional Cubs colors to make it look a little more babyish and sweet but I think the Dad-to-be will forgive me. It's hard to tell how small this 0-3 month onesie is from the photo but I'll post a picture of the little munchie inside it come November so y'all can see. I can't wait to hold him and kiss him and smell him and love him and call him George.

October 14, 2009

I'm not sure how many of you remember this craft that I linked to back in the early days of Roses Are Blue but I have had a hard time throwing caps away since I made my first cupcake. I was looking at my bowl of caps thinking it was time for a new pin cushion so I started thinking about pins that I covet (what? You don't covet pins? Have you seen the button ones?! So cute.) Anyway, I have long had my eye on these sweet little pins so I thought, "Duh. Flower pot." and started warming up the glue gun. Once I finished my pot I put flower pins on my fabric store shopping list (yes, it was the only thing on the list and no, I can't be trusted to remember why I'm there) and headed out to run my errands. When I got to the fabric store I discovered that one box of 100 pins was $7 (twice as much as online?) and I thought what any good crafter thinks, "$7 for pins!?! Are you crazy?? I can make those!" So I did.

And darn if they didn't turn out even cuter than I planned! I love them. So now I will share this tutorial with you:

First make your pot. Any plastic bottle cap will do (2-liter, 20 ouncer etc). You can even make varying sizes and have a little flower pot arrangement (cute!) Measure the cap height and circumference and cut two strips of felt, one a little more narrow than the other to be the rim of the pot.

Then cut the circle of brown felt for the dirt. You can eyeball the
size but it should be about an inch larger in diameter than your
bottle cap circle. You can always trim it down later if you make it too
big (um, like I did here).

Use a needle and thread to gather your dirt circle into a little bag, fill it with stuffing and tie it off.

Get out your hot glue gun and glue the two strips of felt to each other, the more narrow one slightly overlapping the wider one to form the rim of the pot. Then bit by bit attach the two strips of felt to the bottle cap. It's important to note here that the top of the cap will be the bottom of the pin cushion so pay attention to your gluing! In the photo below I have the cap turned upside down but the strips are glued correctly. You can also add a circle of felt to the bottom just to make it look more finished but that step is totally optional. Ok, all of the steps are optional but you get what I mean.

Once you have your pot done it's time to fill it with your dirt. Make sure your dirt pillow fits and make any adjustments to it before you start gluing. Once you are satisfied, slather the bottom and lower edges of the dirt pillow with hot glue and carefully place it into the pot.

Now you are ready to plant your flowers. Of course, if you are not cheap like me then by all means stop here, go get the flower pins and Bob's your uncle! However, if you want to save $7, onward and upward. I pulled out my fabric scrap basket for this part because the petals and leaves are so tiny but whatever fabric you use, iron it onto fusible interfacing to keep the flowers from fraying. Then draw on a flower shape and a leaf shape and cut them out.

See how cute?

The last step is to poke your ball headed pins through the shapes and add a little glue if you want (if you use glue remember to add it last so you don't gum up your pins). Voila!

Cut out as many more flowers and leaves as you want for your pot (or as many as you can stand to make in one sitting) and then admire your handiwork. I'd love to see photos if anyone makes one.